PART THREE: THE TRAINING MANUAL. SEMINAR ONE: An Invitation to Diagnosis Focus: What's working? What's not working?

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1 98 PART THREE: THE TRAINING MANUAL SEMINAR ONE: An Invitation to Diagnosis Focus: What's working? What's not working? Welcome to the adventure! We re glad you accepted the invitation, as many have before us. The first invitation was extended by Jesus himself in Matthew 4:17-22: From that time on Jesus began to preach, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. 1 There is a point in our journey toward spiritual maturity that we become concerned about what Jesus wants, and it becomes our desire to please him with our behavior. This flows out of a basic concept of the church: Jesus is Lord. We have a desire to repent, to turn toward Jesus Christ and away from all other directions, and then move toward him. As we focus on him in our desire to do what pleases him, we hear his calling: Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. We who once spread nets for fish will now be taught to spread nets for human beings. That is the call. The same call is extended to James and John, who are mending the nets; that, too, is a part of fishing. The outcome of all this fishing is well expressed in the vision of our Illinois Great Rivers Annual Conference: All the physically and spiritually hungry people of our world feasting on God's abundant grace at God s table so that they experience God s unconditional love for them, are formed in that love, and are sent to live and share that 2 love with the individuals and institutions of our world. That s the end result of all this fishing - all are present at the table. God desires not only that no one be excluded, but that no one be absent. All people are valuable to God, and Jesus lived, died and rose for all of them. These three seminars on making disciples for Jesus Christ are in service of this 1 All quotations of the Bible are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. 2 Illinois Great Rivers Conference, Vision, Mission, and Strategies, conference/vision.html (accessed June 15, 2007).

2 99 vision. There are a variety of methods of fishing for people, and some are more effective than others. The church growth movement began when Donald MacGavran, a missionary supervisor in India, lamented that so much activity was taking place in the name of 3 evangelism but that very few disciples were being made. He began to study what was working. At that time there were few examples of success to study as the vast majority of his missionaries were ineffective at fishing for souls. Most of our efforts today are similarly ineffective. As missionaries repented of methods which did not work and humbled themselves to adopt methods that did work, the lost began coming to the table in greater numbers. The church of today needs to similarly and humbly repent. The priority of making disciples in the United Methodist Church is clearly stated in 120 of the Book of Discipline: The mission of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. Local churches provide the most significant arena through which disciple-making 4 occurs. The purpose of these three seminars is to help this statement to become true for as many of our churches as will hear the call of Jesus. It is our goal for our local churches to again become vibrant centers of fishing for people, so that all might be present at the table of the Lord. Where we are not the best, we will humble ourselves and learn from the best. It s time to return to the most basic principles to learn how to fish for people. In the Diagnosis seminar we will encounter principles from the world s largest and fastest growing churches and explore the fit between them and our own local church settings. We will look at what s working and what s not working in creation using 5 templates which will reveal patterns within the data. This will give us new concepts and terms to describe what happens in churches in order to clearly communicate and diagnose problems. The Dialogue seminar will review overcoming resistance to change. The final Decision seminar will describe simple tools for effective disciple making. The three seminars in this project utilize a process of learning based on 6 sociological research into cultural change known as the Diffusion of Innovations. It is organized by an educational methodology well suited for innovative people known as Understanding by Design and described in Module Eight of Seminar One. 7 What is the one essential quality found by United Methodist researchers in the later sixties, always found without exception in every growing church, and never found in any declining or plateaued church? The first exercise answers this question! Let s begin! 3 Thom Rainer, Effective Evangelistic Churches: Successful Churches Reveal What Works and What Doesn t (Nashville: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1996), Harriet Jane Olson, ed., The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church 2004 (Nashville: The United Methodist Publishing House, 2004), An example of a template would be the lines representing states, counties or highways that overlay weather satellite photos or Doppler radar on television; the template is not a part of the data, nor does it change or interact with the data, but reveals important aspects of the data. 6 Everett M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations, 4th ed. (New York: Free Press, 1995). 7 Grant P. Wiggins and Jay McTighe, Understanding by Design (Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 1998).

3 The Center for Parish Development Principle for Church Growth 100 In 1984 I participated in training by Paul Dietterich of the Center for Parish Development, a United Methodist think tank in Naperville, Illinois. During a break, he shared with me the results of some of their research in evangelism. They built a sample of growing churches of all types to compare with a matching sample of plateaued or declining churches. Whenever a characteristic found in growing churches was also found in a declining church, they took it off their list. The goal of that particular study was to determine the essential characteristics of a growing church. At this point I began to lose interest because I knew dozens of effective, proven methods to organize a church for growth. He told me that this particular study found that there was only one essential characteristic, found always in every growing church without exception and never found in any declining or plateaued church. At this point he had my full attention. The one characteristic: The This is about: 1. are 2. about what is in church In 1994 I was a little burned out. I had been practicing what I had considered to be the state of the art in church growth for nine years and, while that church loved me, there was little numerical growth. When I was informed that I was moving to a new church I decided to ignore everything else I knew and focus on developing this one essential characteristic. I became a steward of. The results in the new church: Attendance average in 1993: Average attendance growth, first six months: % Average attendance growth thereafter: % Community growth (new water meters) % Average attendance in 2005: IN YOUR OPINION, WHY DID THIS WORK? Take some time now to discuss your theories. (Answers for the blanks are on the next page of the Training Manual.)

4 MODULE ONE: THE REINFORCING LOOP Section 1. The Center for Parish Development Church Growth Principle: The laity are excited about what is happening in their church. This is about leverage, emotions, actions and ownership. I became a steward of lay excitement. The results in the new church: 135, 18%, 6%, 5%, WHY WOULD THIS WORK? One answer is that excitement creates positive word of mouth recommendations of the church in hundreds of conversations members have with 8 others from week to week. Positive conversations multiply through a relational network. This is a very powerful form of marketing. Diffusion of innovations research indicates that 84% of a given population group are influenced toward change only by conversations with trusted peers. Conversations change lives. HOMEWORK Discussion Questions: 1.01 What do your people in your church get excited about? (Remember: what excites them might not excite us!) 1.02 How does your church disrespect other people s excitement? 1.03 How do you disrespect other people s excitement? 1.04 Is there a person in your church that deflates excitement? 1.05 Are there slogans or sayings used in your church to deflate excitement? 1.06 How is your church doing as a steward of lay excitement? 1.07 What do you believe your church members are saying about the church? What percent of these conversations would you guess are positive or negative? Section 2. The Reinforcing Loop in Peter Senge s Limits to Growth Archetype: 9 Life organizes itself into systems. Peter Senge describes basic patterns or archetypes which become building blocks of complex systems. One archetype, Limits To Growth, describes how systems limit growth, including church growth. 10 Some helpful definitions for Peter Senge s Limits to Growth Systems Archetype: Reinforcing Loop Process: an increasingly stressful trend, positive or negative. It cycles but with a direction, like a hurricane rotates but moves forward. Attempts to 8 Recent research on large church growth supports the role of lay excitement as a cause of growth in the Center for Parish Development Church Growth Principle. Scott Thumma, Dave Travis, and Warren Bird, Megachurches Today 2005: Summary of Research Findings, megachurch/ megastoday2005_summaryreport.html (accessed June 15, 2007), 11, 17. Cf. Bill Easum and Bil Cornelius, Go Big: Lead Your Church to Explosive Growth (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2006), For an excellent introduction to how networks self-organize in nature and human culture, see Albert-László Barabási, Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means for Business, Science and Everyday Life (New York: Penguin Group, 2003). Cf. Christian A. Schwarz, Natural Church Development: A Guide to Eight Essential Qualities of Healthy Churches (St. Charles, IL: ChurchSmart Resources, 1996), Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art And Practice of the Learning Organization (New York: Doubleday, 1990), 79-88, , , , ,

5 102 help a church grow are changes brought by the reinforcing loop. Balancing Loop Process: keeps things stable, functional, comfortable, predictable and running smoothly; this state of normal functioning is called Homeostasis. The balancing loop is very capable of preventing any change that might overwhelm homeostasis and destabilize the system. Resistance to change takes place in the balancing loop. Resistance increases sufficiently to prevent change. The image for a reinforcing loop is a snowball rolling downhill increasing in momentum and intensity. The image for a Balancing Loop is a teeter-totter; happiness is keeping everything in balance. Balancing Loop Reinforcing Loop Emerging Trend Smooth Cycles Brings Change Preserves Stability Exciting Comforting Conductors Resisters 11 Leadership Management Big Picture Micro-managers Vision Details Proactive Reactive Responds to Potential Responds to Anxiety Entrepreneurial Institutional Ready to gamble Risk averse Visionary Minority (16%) Pragmatic Majority (84%) 12 Ignores Limits Out of control Pushes the trend Prevents Competency Limits Under control Thermostat Correction Competency Limit: When the system has grown so large that it can no longer function, it becomes incompetent, unstable, dysfunctional and painful; survival is truly threatened by disaster. A system, therefore, that fully utilizes capacity is very inefficient and even in danger, as it has no reserve capacity to deal with crisis. The existence of a realistic threat to survival is an indicator that the limit of system competence has been 11 John Ortberg, God Is Closer Than You Think (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), Diffusion of innovations research segments a social system in a standard bell curve distribution based on signature differences in openness to change. This project combines innovators and early adopters into a visionary minority and middle adopters, late adopters and laggards into a pragmatic majority.

6 103 reached. The balancing process is overwhelmed and cannot cope with a trend of change originating in the reinforcing process. Thermostat Correction: The balancing loop reacts long before necessary to retain control and prevent the pain of reaching a Competency Limit. Anxiety, not reality, triggers this response to keep the system in the comfort zone of homeostasis. Pushing the Trend: The reinforcing loop pushes the trend, attempting to overwhelm the balancing response with urgency; by artificially stimulating anxiety, a Thermostat Correction is triggered earlier than necessary. HOMEWORK Discussion Questions 1.08 What are some examples of reinforcing loops and balancing loops in your experience? 1.09 List as many people as you can (up to twelve) who are the strongest examples of the reinforcing process at your church. Number them in order of intensity and reorder your list. Section 3. Heylighen s Generalized Peter Principle: The largest church in a given human community demonstrates Heylighen s Generalized Peter Principle, which states that in evolution systems tend to develop up to 13 the limit of their adaptive competence. The size of a population in nature is determined by the limits of the environment and the competency of the system to manage and thrive within those limits. Ultimately, any system can grow only to the limit of its competence. Beyond that point the ability of the balancing process system to maintain viability begins to break down; it is no longer able to cope with reality. Church size is limited by church competence. Changes that become challenges to survival arise in the reinforcing process; life always involves challenges. The balancing process in creation exists to prevent these challenges from destroying system stability. Yoido church has attained a functional size of 700,000 members while continuing to maintain a functional homeostasis. Problems and challenges have occurred, but the balancing process has been able to cope without the necessity of shrinking to a smaller size church. Yoido church demonstrates the upper level of adaptive competence and homeostasis with regard to church size. The largest church indicates what is possible in a given human community; it is a good place to learn methods for growth. Largest Church Learning Principle: Wherever we are the best, we will share freely with the rest. Wherever we are not the best, we are eager to learn from the best. HOMEWORK Discussion Questions: 1.10 What is the largest church in your community? How large is the worship attendance? How is that church different than yours? How is that church similar? What do you believe are the reasons this church has such a high level of adaptive competence? 13 Francis Heylighen, The Generalized Peter Principle, Principia Cybernetica Web, ed. F. Heylighen, C. Joslyn, and V. Turchin, (accessed June 12, 2007).

7 What do you believe that you could learn from the largest church in your community? If you are the largest church, how could you benefit other churches in your community? 1.12 What questions would you want to ask at the largest church in your community? In the state? In the United States? In the world? 1.13 Consider the ministries of your church; make a list. What do you believe your church to be known for in the community? What ministries of your church would you consider among the best in your community? How could you prove that high evaluation to others? 1.14 What do you consider the boundaries of your church s community? In order to grow, should you widen your territory and become more regional in your thinking? Or should you decrease your territory and become more locally focused? 1.15 What would it be like if the emerging trend did overwhelm the competency limit? How serious a problem would this be? Can you think of examples where this has happened? 1.16 What challenges would you anticipate for your church should it suddenly and inexplicably grow in size? How would your church likely respond to each challenge? What would you expect would happen, based on your observation of other churches? 1.17 Does it bother you to link the concept of best church with largest church? Why or why not? Section 4. The Discipleship System: The primary evangelistic strategy of the 21st century is the establishment of new faith communities... A faith community is created when a worship experience is tied to a discipleship system. A worshiping group without a discipleship system is not a faith community; it is simply a place to worship God. A faith community intentionally creates settings that link worship to discipleship and spiritual 14 formation. OBSERVATIONS, QUOTES AND ASSUMPTIONS: Agree or disagree? A. A Discipleship System delineates the path for a disciple from the world, into the church and onward to maturity. One aspect of the adaptive competence of a church is the quality of the Discipleship System. Discipleship Systems cooperate with God s work of making disciples in prevenient grace, justifying grace and sanctifying grace. A quality Discipleship System vastly increases system competence which overcomes systemic Limits to Growth, and the reinforcing process fills in the extra capacity with new members. B. A quality Discipleship System smoothly moves new disciples through the stages of 15 spiritual maturation. The Book of Discipline suggests four stages of maturity: 14 Craig Kennet Miller, NextChurch.Now: Creating New Faith Communities (Nashville: Discipleship Resources, 2000), 6. Cf. Craig Kennet Miller, Creating New Faith Communities in Congregational Development Manual, under (accessed June 15, 2007). 15 One author who has written on this topic is Greg Ogden, Transforming Discipleship: Making Disciples A Few At A Time (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003),

8 105 Christians experience growth and transition in their spiritual life just as in their physical and emotional lives. While this growth is always a work of grace, it does not occur uniformly. Spiritual growth in Christ is a dynamic process marked by awakening, birth, growth, and maturation. This process requires careful and intentional nurture for the disciple to reach perfection in the Christian life. There are stages of spiritual growth and transition: Christian beginnings; Christian birth; Christian growth; and Christian maturity. These require careful and intentional nurture for the disciple to come to 16 maturity in the Christian life and to engage fully in the ministry of all Christians. The world s largest churches have very competent Discipleship Systems. C. Fully utilizing a Discipleship System is a major change for most churches. These churches utilize a more traditional approach which could be called a proclamation paradigm, sometimes known as an attraction paradigm or come structure. In this paradigm of church, believers invite the world to come to the church to hear the gospel. The focus of the proclamation oriented church is on the event of worship in the temple rather than on the process of discipleship within a network of people. In churches based on Discipleship Systems, followers of Jesus go into the world and bring the gospel to the people, and then bring new believers into the church for teaching and maturation. D. Structural Principle: The problem is not to change or replace structure but to utilize existing structures for disciple making. Systems usually prevent changes to structures. HOMEWORK Discussion Questions: 1.18 The Book of Discipline quote above lists four stages of Christian maturity. Would you use more or fewer stages? What would you name each stage? 1.19 What would you say are the steps toward maturity in the Discipleship System currently in use in your church? What is the highest level of maturity sought and taught? 1.20 What is a realistic description of a person at the highest level of spiritual maturity possible? What would a camera see them doing? What would you imagine a typical day or week be like for such a person? Where could you find written descriptions of such a person? 1.21 Consider the structural principle above; what components of your church would you identify as directly involved in making and/or maturing disciples for Jesus Christ? 1.22 What parts of your church are not directly involved in making or maturing disciples for Jesus Christ? 1.23 How could disciple making be added to these activities? HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS: 1.01 BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Read the Project Introduction for an overview of this project, statistics on church membership and on cell church growth Paragraph 134, Book of Discipline 2004, David O. Kueker, Project Introduction, (accessed June 18, 2007).

9 JOURNAL: Record your reflections and document your answers to the Questions for a Better Understanding found on page 139 with regard to the information in this module SANCTIFIED BATTING ORDER EXERCISE: If you are a baseball fan, you know that there are nine players on a team. Each has a position to play, special gifts and abilities and a specialized role to play on the team. The batting order is the order in which they come up to the plate, one by one, to face the pitcher. Baseball players hit as a team. Each one follows another in a designated order to achieve a common objective: get a player on base and then get that player home to score. In the United Methodist Church, pastors assigned to your church function like a Sanctified Batting Order. They are appointed to your church by the bishop to do the Lord s business. It is not the individual effort of any one pastor, however, that wins a game. No pastor hits a home run each time up to bat. Some pastors strike out; the best players strike out twice as often as they get a hit. When a pastor is successful at getting on base, it s up to that pastor s successor to get a hit to bring that player home to score a run. Success is not found in the play of any one pastor, but in the sequence of pastors. The Sanctified Batting Order Exercise helps you gather data on the experience of the last nine pastors appointed to your church. (Your current pastor is ninth in the batting order.) This information will help you to recognize trends developing through the last nine appointments. Using statistics from the Annual Conference Journals for each year, build a spread sheet table of the following statistics for each year of the Sanctified Batting Order period. Have columns for years and put the following in twenty-two horizontal rows: Membership at the beginning of the year. Members lost by removal, church conference action, by death, by transfer; total members lost. New members by confession of faith, by transfer; total members gained. Average attendance. Membership at close of year. Number of baptisms. Church school attendance, leaders; total attendance. Membership of UMM and UMW. Apportionments, Indebtedness, total Benevolences, Grand total paid. QUESTIONS FOR EACH PASTORAL ERA: Pastor: Arrival date: Departure date: Position in the Batting Order: # 1. What were the circumstances that led to a new pastor arriving? 2. What major church events occurred during this pastor s tenure? (List at least three.) What words could describe the emotional state of the church during these events? Positive, negative, anxious, excited, fearful, courageous, worried, energetic? 3. What major historical events happened during that tenure, either nationally or in the community, which could have affected the church? 4. Describe the pastor and the pastor s family living in the parsonage, their ages, and major events in the pastor s family during this pastor s tenure. 5. Things started? Things ended? 6. Significant people arrive? Significant people depart? 7. What other questions would help identify patterns in your church history? 8. What can be learned from the statistics during this pastor s tenure?

10 MODULE TWO: THE FOUR PRIORITIES OF CELL CHURCHES Section 1. Cell Parable: A Thousand People in a Field Imagine two grassy fields; put a thousand people in each of them. In the first field are a thousand church members. People being social, they will begin to gather into groups of like-minded friends. When the size of a group is about a dozen, hand them some excellent curriculum. If they do something with the curriculum, they are a small group. The thousand people in the second field are an army. Each person present knows the following intimately: - Who commands the army, who commands them, and who they command. - Their unit - who is in it, their position in it, and their unit s in the whole. - They have clear orders (little picture) and a clear mission (big picture). - They have the training and equipment necessary to fulfill their orders and the mission. - They have had lots of supervised practice to develop all necessary skills. - There are clearly understood customs of etiquette, clear rules, routine and structure. - There are clear consequences for disobedience. - There are identifying insignia: unit, rank, skill, campaign ribbons, medals and other means to reward and recognize merit and experience. The army has a commitment to win, moral courage, and is prepared to engage in a life and death struggle. They are ready to risk their lives, follow orders, fight, and, if need be, to die. Now give the people in each field an important task, such as the evangelization of a lost world. What will happen next? HOMEWORK Discussion Questions: 2.01 Which field most represents small groups in your home church? Who in your church would enjoy or prefer the field where work is highly organized and structured? Who in your church would prefer the field without structure? Why, in your opinion? 2.02 Consider the list of characteristics of the army - what each person knows intimately. How difficult would it be to achieve this level of clarity and commitment within some of the members of your church? Would it be possible? 2.03 Have you ever experienced this level of organization in your personal life? Was it a positive or negative experience? 2.04 Is there an organization in your community that has this kind of discipline? Does this level of organization help or hinder their purpose? (Hint: look for uniforms.) 2.05 What could a church with that kind of discipline and organization accomplish? What problems in your local church would a higher level of discipline and organization solve? What problems would a higher level of discipline and organization cause? OBSERVATIONS, QUOTES AND ASSUMPTIONS: Agree or disagree? A. The world s largest churches are built around networks of small groups called cells. Joel Comiskey defines a cell church as a church that has placed evangelistic small groups 107

11 108 at the core of its ministry. The word evangelistic is crucial to this definition. 18 Organizing in this manner seems to be necessary for growth over 20,000 members to occur. Cell churches are highly organized to accomplish their evangelistic task and work in both prevenient and sanctifying grace. While each cell will differ, the common purpose is always to directly help people find Christ, grow in spiritual maturity and make their own disciples. B. Cell Churches are highly organized and disciplined. This raises the level of quality and competence, and the church grows to fill that capacity. Cells are far more than small groups. Cells are linked by a highly effective supervisory structure that carefully manages growth and overcomes resistance to change. If this supervisory structure is not built, growth will plateau due to a competency limit. The larger size of a gigantic cell church requires that it be organized in a different way in order to function at a high level of quality. C. The world s largest church is Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, Korea, a cell church with over 700,000 members. Yoido worship service average attendance is 153,000 in the 19 main facility. Their sanctuary will seat twelve thousand, while another twelve thousand worship in twelve chapels on campus with the service broadcast on large video screens. (Another hundred thousand worship in nineteen regional chapels off site where the worship service is projected on a large screen; worship is also broadcast on television and the internet throughout Korea.) There are seven services on Sundays. The worship is so crowded as to be uncomfortable by American cultural standards and there have been years where the average member has to wait at least one hour in a long line just to get a place 20 to sit down in one of our seven services on Sunday. D. Not all churches in Korea are large; cell churches are surrounded and vastly outnumbered by the same sort of small churches that surround us in the United States. Cell churches have somehow been able to overcome barriers that cause resistance to growth in numbers. These gigantic churches are happy, effective, loving churches that perfectly meet the needs of their people, or they would have stopped growing and their people would have gone elsewhere. HOMEWORK Discussion Questions: 2.06 What is your reaction to the statistics on the size of the world s largest church? 2.07 What is your reaction to the idea of having to wait in line for an hour in order to get 18 Steve Cordle, Church In Many Houses: Reaching Your Community Through Cell-Based Ministry (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2005), 22. Steve Cordle is pastor of Crossroads United Methodist Church, (accessed June 14, 2007). 19 Joel Comiskey, Yoido Full Gospel Church, worldwide/yoido.htm (accessed June 15, 2007). 20 Paul Yongii Cho with R. Whitney Manzano, More Than Numbers (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1984), 50. The facilities have since been expanded.

12 109 into the main sanctuary at your church? 2.08 What is your reaction to the concept that a Discipleship System could be so effective as to totally overwhelm the ability of a church to provide adequate worship space to worship together? 2.09 Would your church be comfortable worshiping in multiple services? 2.10 Would you be comfortable worshiping in an auditorium where the sermon was televised live on a large screen from another site? E. I would never feel at home in such a large church... Cell Parable: Major League Baseball Rarely do people consider the advantages of a good Little League baseball game over Major League Baseball. The Little League game is free. I attend with people I know and trust and we all can sit within 20 feet of the game. We all know each others names, jobs, families and situation. No strangers are present, except for the other team. We can bring coolers of food and drinks from home, and often share them with each other. The bleachers are comfortable or you can bring your own lawn chairs. Everyone can sit within a few feet of the players. The Major League game is expensive. All the other people in the stadium are strangers who I don t know or trust. You can t bring food and drinks from home; you have to stand in line and pay a high price for food. You have to pay to park and there s a huge traffic jam when the game s over. Last week I explained to the officials at a Major League baseball stadium that the game shouldn t start until everyone in the stands had shaken hands and introduced themselves to each other so we wouldn t be strangers. They thought I was a kook. Obviously, there is no future to professional baseball when you have such great fellowship at the little league level. It s cheap and it s easy, and my kid is the star. Who could ask for anything more? HOMEWORK Discussion Questions: 2.11 Have you ever been to a major league baseball game? What was the attendance? 21 Did it bother you to not know everyone else in the stadium? Was it enough to know the small group of people you attended the game with? 2.12 How would it make the experience different if you knew you would be separated from those you came with? If they were scattered throughout the stadium? What if your children were seated with strangers? What problems could you foresee? Would you have attended the game if you had been separated from your friends and family? F. We attend major league sports in a small group, often our family. That meets our needs or we would not attend. The other people in the stadium are not our primary concern. Our concern is the small group community we are with and what happens down on the field. 21 Average attendance at Busch Stadium for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2007 is 43,714. Average attendance at Wrigley Field for the Chicago Cubs in 2007 is 39,135. From MLB Attendance Report: 2007, (accessed June 15, 2007).

13 The same concerns fuel large cell church growth. 110 THERE ARE MAJOR LEAGUE CHURCHES. MANY PEOPLE ATTEND THEM. Some people are bothered by a large church of thousands of people; they don t like a big crowd. Well, there are going to be a lot of people in heaven and a lot of people in hell. Wherever you re going, you might as well get used to it. - Bishop Eddie L. Long G. Our focus here is to discover what s working. If we adopt cell church priorities we might find that we also are developing home grown methods that overcome our own limitations to growth. It s easy to get stuck imitating someone else s methods and not understand the purpose that underlies those methods. It s likely that the priorities by themselves are sufficient to raise the level of adaptive competence in United Methodist churches and make room for growth. The rest of this module answers two questions: What are the priorities of these major league churches? How do they differ from ours? 22 H. What are some examples of cell churches in the United States? Dale Galloway used the Yoido 5x5 system to build New Hope Community Church 23 of Portland, Oregon, to more than five thousand persons in cells from 1972 to Bethany World Prayer Center, near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was inspired by the Elim Church 5x5 system and had a net growth of six hundred families in 1993, their first year of cell ministry. In four years they had gained a net growth of two thousand families. 24 Their average worship attendance in 2005 is eight thousand persons. Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church of rural Dayton, Ohio, grew from an attendance of ninety in 1979 to a congregation in 2006 of more than four thousand in 25 weekly attendance. It is still located on a rural county road miles from any large population center and has utilized a cell driven approach since the early days under Pastor 22 For an excellent chart identifying differences between traditional and cell churches, see Ralph W. Neighbor, Jr., Where Do We Go From Here? A Guidebook for the Cell Group Church, 10th Anniversary ed. (Houston: Touch Publications, 1990), Elmer Towns, An Inside Look at 10 of Today's Most Innovative Churches: What They're Doing, How They're Doing It & How You Can Apply Their Ideas in Your Church (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1990), Cf. Dale E. Galloway, 20/20 Vision: How to Create a Successful Church (Portland, OR: Scott Publishing Co., 1986). Cf. William Easum, Dancing With Dinosaurs: Ministry in a Hostile and Hurting World (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1993), Larry Stockstill, The Cell Church: Preparing Your Church For The Coming Harvest (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1998), 22. Hartford Institute for Religion Research, Database of Megachurches in the U.S., (accessed October 29, 2007). Bethany is now the primary proponent of the G12 system in the United States. Cf. Bethany Cell Church Network, BCCN: The Bethany Cell Church Network, (accessed June 12, 2007). 25 Michael Slaughter, Spiritual Entrepreneurs: Six Principles for Risking Renewal (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996), 14-15, 72-75, , Weekly participation in 2006 averages over four thousand with seven weekend worship services. Cf. Ginghamsburg Key Staff Directory: Mike Slaughter, (accessed June 18, 2007).

14 Michael Slaughter. Willow Creek Community Church, with an average worship attendance of 23,500, and Saddleback Valley Community Church., with an attendance of 22,000, also meet the definition of a cell church as being built around networks of evangelistic small groups. 27 Joel Comiskey lists forty-four thriving cell churches in North America personally known to him, ranging in average worship attendance from 50 to 8, Section Two: Grace and Evangelism OBSERVATIONS, QUOTES AND ASSUMPTIONS: Agree or disagree? 29 A. There are three kinds of Grace. Cell churches raise their level of adaptive competence by working diligently in all three kinds of grace. Prevenient Sanctifying Justifying Prevenient Grace is God working to bring people to Christ; it s about going and making disciples (Matthew 28:19). Justifying Grace is God making a person a Christian (Romans 3:24, 5:1, 10:9-10). Sanctifying Grace is God working to mature people in Christ; it s about teaching disciples to observe all that Christ has commanded (Matthew 28:20). B. Disciple making small groups cooperate with God in God s work for both Prevenient and Sanctifying Grace. When churches utilize small groups, their purpose often focuses only on work in sanctifying grace; this limits the making of new disciples. The Great Commission commands cooperation with God in both prevenient and sanctifying grace. C. JUSTIFYING GRACE: How Does One Become a Christian? In Justifying Grace we speak of a before and after experience. For some this experience is dramatic and a sudden shift of everything; they speak in terms of polar opposites, such as once I was blind, now I see. For others, the sense of before and after is very clear, but a period of growth lies between during which Justifying Grace unfolds at the pace that God desires. Few people remember their own birth. Justifying 26 Ginghamsburg does their own version of cell; see Cell Group Community, (accessed October 29, 2007). Cf. Easum, Dancing With Dinosaurs, Hartford Institute for Religion Research, Database of Megachurches in the U.S., (accessed October 29, 2007). 28 Joel Comiskey, Evidence You Can't Deny, articles/worldwide/northamerica.htm (accessed October 29, 2007). 29 Harriet Jane Olson, ed., Distinctive Wesleyan Emphases, interior.asp?mid=1812 (accessed June 15, 2007).

15 112 Grace is something that only God can do, but we can pray that God would do just that with a prayer like the one below. D. The Centering Prayer: Lord Jesus, today I am far less than the person I want to be or can be with your help. I ask today that you would be more and more the center of my life. Guide me to all that is good, cleanse me from all that is not. Teach me Your ways and form in me Your nature. Work through me to redeem my neighborhood. I am a sinner; please be my Shepherd, my Savior and my Lord. Amen. E. This Centering Prayer works whether we are asking for the first time to become a Christian or renewing our commitment to become a better Christian. It s meant to summarize all that it means to be a committed Christian, and ask God s help to be one. HOMEWORK Discussion Questions: 2.13 What groups in your church are working with non-christians? List them. Which of these groups have a specific focus on non-christians becoming Christians? 2.14 What groups in your church are working with a focus on Christians? List them. Which of these groups have a specific focus on Christians becoming better Christians? 2.15 What other groups are in your church? List them. What is their focus? 2.16 How would you edit or improve the Centering Prayer to better express your understanding of grace, how one becomes a Christian and lives as a Christian? 2.17 How did you experience God in prevenient grace? Were other people a part of that experience? How do you experience God in sanctifying grace? Are other people involved? Section 3. Cell Church Priority #1: Jesus is Lord. Matthew 28:18: And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me... OBSERVATIONS, QUOTES AND ASSUMPTIONS: Agree or disagree? A. Jesus is Lord means that Jesus is the boss; Jesus is to be obeyed. Not every one who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers' (Matthew 7:21-23). B. The innovation most needed in our churches is very simple: Jesus is Lord. What does it mean for Jesus to be Lord? Lordship leads to prayer which leads to goals which lead to action. Goals are clear, specific, measurable and written. Goals are behavioral and therefore visual; actions can be seen. (Behavioral goals show behavior that a camera would see.) C. Ginghamsburg Church motto: If Jesus would vote yes then you cannot vote no. D. Christian Schwarz: The shortest list of quality characteristics I know of was given to

16 me by the Korean pastor, David Yongii Cho, in a telephone conversation: Pray and obey. That is certainly one way to summarize the issue. 30 E. Corinne Ware: The task of transformation is to find a way to keep the Sower s holy seed alive and continuously growing in us, to see that it takes deep root in the good soil 31 of our open spirits. Reading scripture is necessary to know the Lord s will. HOMEWORK Discussion Questions: 2.18 What are your church s goals? Are they in writing? Are they the result of prayer? 2.19 Are these goals the primary focus of energy in your church? Of budget allocations? 2.20 What percentage of your congregation would you estimate is aware of these goals? What percentage of your congregation is working to achieve these goals? 2.21 What are your personal goals? Are they in writing? Are they the result of prayer? Are they the primary focus of your life? Your time? Your money? 2.22 Do these goals reflect the teachings of Jesus? Of other scriptures? 2.23 Do these goals indicate that Jesus is Lord of your church? Of your life? 2.24 Are you comfortable or uncomfortable with the idea of Jesus as Lord? 2.25 If Jesus was truly Lord of your life, what would be different? The same? 2.26 If Jesus was truly Lord in the lives of all the active members of your church, what would be different? The same? What would a camera see? HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS: 2.01 BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Read Chapter Two: Discipleship Systems for more on discipleship systems, the history of the world s largest church and its principles 32 for disciple making JOURNAL: Record your reflections and document your answers to the Questions for a Better Understanding found on page 139 with regard to the information on Priority # CURRENT GOALS: If your church has no written goals, generate a list of goals based on what the church is doing now - on its current practice and habits. (If there are no written goals, then the goal is to perpetuate what is happening routinely.) 2.04 NEW TESTAMENT CHALLENGE: Jesus then said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free" (John 8:31-32) Christian A. Schwarz, Paradigm Shift in the Church: How Natural Church Development Can Transform Theological Thinking (Carol Stream, IL: ChurchSmart Resources, 1999), st Corinne Ware, Saint Benedict on the Freeway: A Rule of Life for the 21 Century (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2001), David O. Kueker, Chapter Two: Discipleship Systems, Resources.html (accessed May 15, 2007).

17 114 The New Testament Challenge is to begin and finish reading the New Testament in the next three months. (The book of Revelation can be omitted due to the difficulty of its interpretation.) Reading an average of 18 chapters a week, less than three per day, will fulfill this goal. For most readers this will be less than 30 minutes per day. It s important to know the teachings of Jesus, especially what is commanded by Jesus for disciples in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. As you read through the gospels, look for the commands of Jesus for his disciples. Mark, highlight or make a list of these commands. Read as if reading a newspaper or a novel. You could study each verse in detail, but the goal is twofold: have an overview of the entire New Testament and focus on the verses which seem to have a particular interest to you as highlighted by the Holy Spirit. You might buy a new New Testament so that you can mark it specifically for the purposes of this study. John Wesley: I am distressed. I know not what to do. I see what I might have done once. I might have said peremptorily and expressly, "Here I am: I and my Bible. I will not, I dare not, vary from this book, either in great things or small. I have no power to dispense with one jot or tittle what is contained therein. I am determined to be a Bible Christian, not almost, but altogether. Who will meet me on this ground? Join me on this, or not at all." 33 Section 4. Cell Church Priority #2: Evangelism or Working in Prevenient Grace. Matthew 28:19: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations... OBSERVATIONS, QUOTES AND ASSUMPTIONS: Agree or disagree? A. Cell churches do not believe in limits to growth, but rather believe as Jesus said: The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest (Luke 10:2). The harvest is ready; what is lacking are the laborers. B. In South America, the Elim Church in El Salvador used the Yoido system, known as 34 the 5x5 model, to build a church of 130,000 members in Note the fivefold purpose of the Elim Church memorized by every member: 1. I have a purpose. 2. My purpose is winning souls. 3. I fulfill my purpose best in a group. 4. I will never be satisfied until I fulfill my purpose. 5. I have no promise of tomorrow. 35 C. Every member in a cell church, without exception, is expected to be directly involved in 33 John Wesley, Causes of the Inefficacy of Christianity (Sermon 116) in John Wesley, The Works rd of John Wesley, 3 ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1979), 7: Billy Hornsby, The Cell Driven Church: Bringing in The Harvest (Mansfield, PA: Kingdom Publishing, 2000), Stockstill, Cell Church, 53. Cf. Hornsby, Cell Driven Church, 15, 35.

18 115 the making of new disciples and is fully supported in that task by the church s organizational structure. Every program of the cell church is subordinated to the goal of making disciples. The goal is generations of disciples making disciples making disciples (2 Timothy 2:2). D. Ralph Neighbor: The typical church-goer relates to only five to eight people for at least one full hour per week per person, and half of those Christians cannot name a single unbeliever among their close friends. Many of them have not even made a new acquaintance in the past twelve months. They live in little personal bubbles, having no 36 interest in people who live and work close to them. Noticing the lost is a key factor in evangelism. Who do you know that does not attend church? E. Charles Spurgeon: Even if I were utterly selfish, and had no care for anything but my own happiness, I would choose if I might under God to be a soul winner, for never did I know perfect overflowing, unalterable happiness of the purest and most enabling order till I first heard of one who had sought and found the Savior through my means. 37 HOMEWORK Discussion Questions: 2.27 Do you agree or disagree with the Elim Church Purpose? How would your life change if this was your purpose? 2.28 How well is your church doing with each part of the Elim Church Purpose? 2.29 How is your church waiting for the world to come to it? 2.30 How is your church going out into the world? How will that lead to making disciples? Directly or indirectly? 2.31 When you go out into the world, what is your goal? How will that lead to making disciples? Directly or indirectly? 2.32 What part of going into the world is done with groups, and what by other means? 2.32 Identify activities of your church that do not make disciples. How could each activity be adapted to directly or indirectly make disciples? If it doesn t make disciples, why is your church doing it? HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS: 2.05 JOURNAL: Record your reflections and document your answers to the Questions for a Better Understanding found on page 139 with regard to the information.on Priority # LAST TWELVE MEMBER FAMILIES EXERCISE: List the last twelve new member families that joined your church as adult members. (Do not include youth joining after a confirmation class as their families are long term members.) Our goal is to learn the details of their journey into our church and onward to spiritual growth within our church. 36 Neighbor, Where Do We Go, 101. Emphasis in original. Schwarz, Natural Church Development, 35, indicates the average Christian has 8.5 weekly contacts with unbelievers. June 15, 2007). 37 Charles Spurgeon, Soul-Winning Explained, (accessed